1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to session recording and sharing, and more particularly to systems and methods for recording and sharing sessions involving computer activity and related audio or audiovisual content.
2. Background and Related Art
With the advent and spread of computers, information is now being spread in new ways. For example, people communicate information that may previously have been communicated by telephone or letter by way of electronic mail, instant messaging, teleconferencing, and the like. While computers and other electronic systems have expanded communications in many ways, they have also complicated the transfer of information and increased the amount of information that must be communicated. As one example, in many instances, it becomes important for computer users to communicate information about their computer systems and their electronic documents and files and other information. For example, a user may wish to communicate information about performance of his or her computer system to a technical support person. Alternatively, a user may wish to utilize information displayed on his or her computer in a presentation to remote individuals and may require that such information be simultaneously displayed on one or more remote systems. A user might also wish to convey complex ideas relating to computer-transmitted information, such as necessary background information relating to computer files and the like. Similarly, users may wish to have access to information presented in a meeting outside of computer-stored data, such as by conversation or the like, including information contained in how things are said. The potential scope of information that may be of interest relating to interaction with computer system is enormous, further enhancing the difficulty in conveying such information in advantageous fashion.
Existing systems and methods have been developed to attempt to facilitate such communication. For example, remote computer access is available to allow a remote user to access a computer system, such as to view information and/or diagnose system problems. As another example, conferencing software and systems may be used to display contents or the display of one computer system to another computer system. Such systems are often used with an audio conferencing feature, many times provided by way of a separate telephone call. As another example, video conferencing has developed to allow one- or two-way communication between remote computer systems.
While existing system and methods provide certain benefits and advantages that are useful for certain needs, they are also limited in their application. For example, while existing conferencing software allows remote users to view what a host user views on his or her computer system while participating in an audio communication among the users, the remote users are limited to static viewing of displayed information and are unable to access underlying data. Similarly, such systems are typically limited to one-time real-time viewing of information and are not well suited for or capable of later use. Other communications systems are limited in the type(s) of information that may be conveyed. Many systems require the transmission of significant amounts of data, such as by transmission of a video feed capturing what is shown on a computer screen, for example. When large amounts of data are to be transmitted, users having slower network connections may not be able to receive all such data in a timely fashion and the users' experience suffers. Consequences of having to convert to video include increased processing power needs, an increased demand for transmission speed and bandwidth, and increased data storage needs. The transmission speed and the storage capacity needed to create a user friendly experience have limited the implementation of such systems.